(FORTUNE Magazine) – The best guitar sounds from Zaire, township rhythms from South Africa, and different musical styles from dozens of other African countries continue to land on U.S. shores. Music imports from that continent have soared since the mid-1980s, first in Europe and now in the U.S. Recent arrivals include work by Cameroon's Les Tetes Brulees (loosely translated, the Hot Heads). The group will also be performing this summer in New York, San Francisco, and other cities.

Says Randall Grass, executive vice president of Shanachie Records, a record company in Newton, New Jersey: ''There's a saying that every village in Africa has its own rhythm.'' Privately held Shanachie was one of the first U.S. companies to tap this music. Its artists include the group Loketo, whose members hail from Zaire and Congo. Although African music is only a tiny percentage of sales in the U.S., Billboard, the industry bible, runs a World Music Chart often dominated by Africans. National Public Radio broadcasts Afropop Worldwide to over 200 stations weekly. Major record companies are now climbing aboard. Polygram's Verve label has signed the South African group Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens, for example. Sony's Columbia Records is distributing the songs of Senegal's Youssou N'Dour.